Mike Mayock thinks the NFL has crossed a line with the helmet rule

Add NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock to the list of football observers who don’t like the NFL’s new rule banning running backs from lowering their heads into tacklers.

Mayock, who played defensive back for the Giants in the 1980s and is now the top analyst on the league-owned cable channel, said shortly after the owners voted 31-1 to pass the new rule that the owners were wrong.

“While I applaud the league for most of what’s going on with the safety concerns, and all players and former plays applaud that, I look at this rule and I say, at some point I think we’re crossing a line,” Mayock said. “To me, a running back has got to be able to drop his pad level. And when a running back drops his pad level, his head goes with it. That’s just the way you play football. And from a defensive player’s perspective — which I was — I understand and respect that. I think it’s part of the game, and I don’t think you can legislate all contact and all forcible head hits out of this game.”

Mayock said he believes the NFL’s owners dramatically altered the sport of football today.

“I’m not a fan of this rule at all. I think it crosses a line. We all love safety, but at some point, football’s got to be football,” Mayock said. “If a running back can’t drop his pad level, I don’t think it’s football anymore.”

When defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh said in December that his agent will choose his next team, I assumed Suh meant his football agent, Jimmy Sexton. If that’s the case, Sexton likely will select on Suh’s behalf the offer that entails the most money, since the football agent gets paid based on how much money a football player makes playing football.

But what if the agent to whom Suh was referring isn’t his football agent but Suh’s marketing agent, Jay Z? In that case, the marketing agent would be less concerned about football-related revenue and more concerned about off-field earning opportunities, since the marketing agent gets paid based on how much money the player makes away from playing football.

If it’s the latter, a large market like Jay Z’s hometown of New York makes a lot of sense. Coincidentally (or not), Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News reports that the Giants are considering making a run at Suh.

It would make a ton of sense from a football standpoint, since the Giants won their two championships since 2007 based on the strength of the pass rush — with an emphasis (especially against the Patriots) on creating pressure up the middle of the line of scrimmage. Ultimately, however, the Giants will have to compete with teams that view Suh as a player who can spark a Reggie White-style transformation of a franchise, making an irrelevant or long-suffering franchise suddenly interesting and potentially competitive.

Without question, Suh is the most significant defensive free agent since White picked the Packers in 1993. Former Packers G.M. Ron Wolf recently told PFT Live that White chose Green Bay because of the money the Packers offered, notwithstanding White’s claims of divine intervention. For Suh, the size of the football contract must be compared to the magnitude of the non-football cash possibilities, along with the kind of notoriety that will knock Alex Rodriguez from the back pages of the tabloids.

Whether it’s practical or not, the addition of the Giants to the pursuit of Suh makes a fascinating situation even more intriguing.

The Jets took a nosedive in 2014, but their season ticket prices are holding level.

The team announced that they won’t be changing the cost of attending a Jets game for the 2015 season after raising prices last year. The team will expand the use of variable pricing, but tickets for non-club seats to the game will still cost between $50 and $162.50.

“After considering many factors, we determined to keep season ticket prices unchanged for the 2015 season,” team president Neil Glat said, via the Associated Press.

In an email to season ticket holders, owner Woody Johnson said he wants MetLife Stadium “to be a fearsome place to play.” The Jets’ home slate for 2015 consists of their AFC East rivals, Tennessee, Jacksonville, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Washington. If the 2015 season plays out anything like last year for the Jets and most of their opponents, fearsome might not prove to be the right word for the slate.

With two days to go until the window closes for securing sufficient nominations to land on the ballot for NFLPA executive director, three challengers to DeMaurice Smith has qualified for placement on the official ballot. Others may soon join them.

As PFT previously reported, Sean Gilbert and Andrew Smith secured the requisite three nominations from voting player representatives to obtain a spot in the election. PFT has confirmed that John Stufflebeam has obtained the three nominations as well.

Anyone else interested in running for the position (including declared candidates Sean Morey and James Acho) have until 11:59 p.m. ET on Thursday, March 5 to arrange the sufficient nominations.

Ultimately, the candidate who obtains on March 15 the votes of at least 17 player representatives will get the job. Those who make it to the final ballot will have an opportunity to make their cases to the folks who’ll be doing the voting.

The Dolphins held onto tight end Charles Clay via the transition tag, but they’ve been taking the scalpel to other members of the receiving corps.

Wide receivers Brian Hartline and Brandon Gibson are both gone and the team hasn’t said what they plan to do about Mike Wallace, who will count $12.1 million against the cap after a year that ended with him on the bench after a spat with the coaching staff. That unhappiness with role or prominence in the offense has been a persistent storyline through Wallace’s two years in Miami with talk often roaming to his relationship with quarterback Ryan Tannehill.

Tannehill said Tuesday that he has no idea what the Dolphins will do with Wallace, but said he had a “great” conversation with the receiver recently that left him looking forward to a third year with the wideout.

“We’ve done it in the past, and the more time we spend together the more the relationship will grow. I’m excited to see what this year holds for us,” Tannehill said, via the Palm Beach Post. “Mike’s a talented player. We’ve all seen what he can do and the element he adds to our offense. Like I said, if he comes back, we’re going to make it work with him, and let him be the playmaker he is.”

Reports out of Miami last week were that Wallace wasn’t willing to take a pay cut, although there’s been no action or comment from the team in any direction.

It’s Cole Beasley who has signed his name to a new contract with the team. Beasley was set to become a restricted free agent this offseason, but the team has gone further than that to secure his services.

According to multiple reports, Beasley has agreed to a four-year, $13.6 million deal with $7 million guaranteed. Incentives can push the total money in the deal up another $1.5 million and Beasley will reportedly get a $4 million signing bonus.

Beasley had 37 catches for 420 yards and four touchdowns this season with 21 catches and all the scores coming as Dallas went 5-1 down the stretch. He had seven more catches in the playoffs and should continue to be a frequent presence in the slot alongside Dez Bryant and Terrance Williams next season.

Because most people tend to gravitate toward people with whom we share traits, a locker room can become a place bordering on segregated, in more ways than one. Trestman tried to shake that up, to make a receiver sit next to a lineman or a cornerback next to a kicker in hopes of fostering a greater bond of brotherhood. Or something. Who knows. It seemed like sort of a hippie social-engineering experiment, and those are usually better ideas on paper. Or anyplace other than a football locker room, really.

If there was any bad reaction to it, it probably had more to do with inertia than anything else, as not many people enjoy moving their stuff around. Does it help to sit next to guys who do the same job as you? Who knows.

Now, the Bears’ biggest challenge might be finding a quarterback who’s willing to sit next to Jay Cutler.

Per NFLPA regulations, Maxwell cannot hire an agent until this weekend, ESPN reported.

Teams can begin to negotiate with free agents on Friday, making the timing of the change less-than-optimal for Maxwell, who is PFT’s 16th-ranked free agent.

With Seattle having considerable resources tied up in its secondary, Maxwell is expected to sign elsewhere in free agency, and it would not be a surprise if he were among the first wave of signees. The question now is whether the representation change will affect Maxwell’s ability to start laying the early groundwork for a deal.

Which means now’s the time for the writing of the history, and Andre Johnson’s agent made it clear none of this was really Johnson’s idea.

Agent Kennard McGuire told Sports Radio 610 in Houston that the idea of a trade was broached by the Texans, only after the team told the veteran wide receiver they wanted him to take a reduced role (which normally comes with a reduced rate of compensation).

“The contractual matters never did come up. The only thing that was discussed was the role and that was in fact that there would be a reduced role.”

While it’s extremely unlikely that anyone would trade anything for Johnson and jump on the hook for his $10.5 million in salary this year, there will certainly be a market for him once he’s cut.

And it’s a terrible look for the Texans, who effectively asked Johnson to take a pay cut, even if those words never came out of their mouths.

While he might not be the same dominant receiver he once was, the idea that he can’t play a significant role doesn’t square with what he’s shown in recent years, especially considering the less-than-ideal quarterback situations he’s been in.

Three weeks ago, Peyton Manning was reportedly planning to announce within the next week that he would return to the Broncos. Except the next week came and went, and another week came and went, and there was silence from Manning.

So does that mean Manning still might decide to retire?

Actually, probably not. As Mike Klis of the Denver Post said on PFT Live (and as other reporters have noted as well), from all indications Manning and the Broncos have both decided that he will be Denver’s quarterback this year. There are still issues to address — including Manning passing a physical and perhaps restructuring his contract — but everyone seems to agree that Manning will be back, and that an announcement is coming soon.

The biggest question seems to be whether Manning is willing to take a pay cut. If the Broncos are able to convince Manning that taking less than the $19 million he’s owed will make the team better suited to re-sign soon-to-be free agents Demaryius Thomas and Julius Thomas, that might be an idea Manning is amenable to. Manning would probably give up millions if he believed it would make him more likely to win his second Super Bowl, and giving up millions to keep both Thomases might be a sound investment for Manning in the long run.

So there are still issues to work out before Manning’s return for 2015 becomes official. But those issues should be resolved soon.

The $1.05 million deal falls under the veteran benefit category, which means they get a salary cap break and he gets a chance to hang around another year.

Cole’s a solid contributor to a deep line, and worth keeping around at bargain rates. Fellow backup Dwan Edwards is also scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent, and they formed a good complement to young starters Star Lotulelei and Kawann Short.

Of course, the Panthers are going to need to restock outside, as they’re going to let defensive end Greg Hardy slide, and they need someone to go with the steady Charles Johnson. General manager Dave Gettleman was talking up 2014 second-rounder Kony Ealy at the Scouting Combine, but the Panthers are always looking for line help.

The Eagles have said goodbye to one of their defensive starters, announcing the release of cornerback Cary Williams on Tuesday.

Williams started all 16 games for Philadelphia in the each of the last two years, recording 126 tackles, defending 21 passes and picking off five passes. He played over 1,100 snaps in both seasons, per Pro Football Focus data.

However, while dependable on the field from an availability standpoint, the 30-year-old Williams was set to make $6.5 million in 2015, according to NFLPA salary records. He was also involved in a number of controversies in his two seasons in Philadelphia, such as when he criticized the team’s practice regimen early in 2014 campaign.

The departure of Williams means the Eagles will have at least one new secondary starter in 2015. Moreover, cornerback Bradley Fletcher and safety Nate Allen are also set to test free agency. In all, it’s quite possible the Eagles will remake their defensive backfield in the offseason, with safety Malcolm Jenkins the lone holdover from 2014.

Williams, for his part, figures to draw some interest in free agency, given his production and experience. Clubs in need of cornerback depth include the Ravens, with whom Williams was a two-season starter (2011, 2012) before joining Philadelphia.

Things didn’t work out for Josh McCown in Tampa in 2014, but he didn’t have to wait long after being released to find a new home.

The Browns snapped up the veteran quarterback as an option along with Johnny Manziel for the 2015 season and we’ll talk to McCown about what led him to Cleveland when he joins Mike Florio on Tuesday’s edition of PFT Live. Al Michaels and NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith are also set to join the program.

Florio will also keep the offseason to-do lists rolling with a look at what’s ahead for the Broncos and Cowboys in the next few months. Peyton Manning, DeMarco Murray and much more will be up for discussion for a pair of teams trying to get back to the playoffs in 2015.

We also want to hear from PFT Planet. Email questions at any time via the O’Reilly Auto Parts Ask the Pros inbox or get in touch on Twitter at @ProFootballTalk to let us know what’s on your mind.

It all gets started at noon ET and you can listen to all three hours live via the various NBC Sports Radio affiliates, through the links at PFT, or with the NBC Sports Radio app. You can also watch a simulcast of the first hour of the show by clicking right here.

In the two years preceding the elevator incident from more than 12 months ago, the Ravens paid running back Ray Rice $25 million. They also paid him another $1.588 million after cutting him and resolving the grievance he filed challenging his release.

According to Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun, who recently interviewed Rice as he tries to get the attention of a new NFL team, the Ravens paid what amounts to 44.9 percent of the $3.529 million Rice sought from the team. The argument was the Rice had already been disciplined by the NFL, and that any additional discipline from the Ravens violated the terms of the labor deal.

The Ravens will now absorb a cap charge of $1.588 million; they’d been holding $1.44 million under Rice’s name.

While some may not be thrilled with the idea that Rice got extra money after being released for an off-field incident of misconduct, the Ravens didn’t cut Rice until after the video of the incident was released publicly. Some in the organization knew exactly what happened in the elevator, and the team clearly could have (and should have) seen the video before deciding to recommit to Rice.

Rice said he’s working out regularly and hoping for a second chance. As PFT reported over the weekend, Rice won’t be attending this month’s veteran combine, which could be Rice’s best chance to get another team’s attention.